March 23, 2026

• less than 3 min read

We may never see that Smiley rollback guy chop a paper tag in half again. That’s because Walmart plans to switch all its US stores over to easily updatable digital price labels by the end of the year. And last week, news broke that the retail giant secured patents to help inject enough machine learning and automated systems into price management that even Bob Barker might have trouble keeping up.

Great(ish?) Value: Digital shelf labels (DSLs), which Kroger has also experimented with, are easier for employees to update than paper tags. But that also means it’s easier to raise prices, stoking concerns among consumer advocates that stores, like airlines, could quickly change prices in response to demand—like how alcohol prices would probably spike after every New York Jets game. Walmart’s recent patents also lay the groundwork for using customer data and AI in tandem. Per the Financial Times:

• Earlier this month, Walmart obtained a patent for a method to predict demand and recommend prices.
• In January, the company obtained a patent for a way to “dynamically and automatically” update prices to mark down items on its website.

Walmart has insisted that DSLs won’t be used for dynamic or surge pricing and that recent patents will be used for markdowns and to help human employees make decisions.

Some lawmakers aren’t convinced. Legislation has been introduced in Congress and in several states that would require paper shelf-pricing for large grocery stores.—BC

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